Family stories perfect for classroom, bedtime, or anytime. Based on my 26 year hobby of reading in public elementary schools, the stories offered here are some of my favorite, kid-tested read-alouds. All stories appear with the permission of the author.
When Sarah’s grandma was fourteen and living in England, she fell out of the hayloft but never hit the ground. That was the day she discovered she could fly with the help of a little magic leftover from times pasts.
Mr. Runkle grows only orderly vegetables while his neighbor, Miss Appleby’s garden is a tangle of bright flowers with the exception of one gigantic, prize winning pumpkin.
Jared loved artifact hunting at his grand parents farm. But each summer a local pack of wild dogs was getting bolder. They had already killed Nick, grandpa's courageous hound. When Jared came face to face with the pack, only one thing could save him.
A traditional fairytale for all ages beautifully retold by award-winning British author, Adele Geras.
Two of the King’s guards pay a young man to show them the way to Aliforde the Woodcutter’s hut. But when they arrive the humble woodcutter bests them both by sword revealing his true identity as the King’s Personal Champion, self-exiled after an accidental killing of a rival. But the King has a new son, and he needs his trusted champion back to teach the young prince the way of the Knight.
According to legend, if you see a leprechaun and don’t take your eyes off him, he must take you to his pot of gold, which is just what a traveling tradesman does. However, in the end, he is outwitted by the leprechaun’s sad but clever story.
A skunk was madly in love with a bear. But the bear, barely noticed the skunk … that is until the skunk saved the bear from hunters and the forest’s most unlikely friendship blossomed.
John Michael was poor, but his friend William was dirt poor and that’s what decided John Michael to give William all the money he got from selling pecans. He would have loved to buy some sports equipment. but it was more important for William to get a bicycle so that he could get a delivery job and help support his family.
A long time ago, in a kingdom by the sea, there was a Princess as tall and bright as a sunflower, but she refused to wither in the shadow of her betrothed Prince and found greater pleasure in her beloved talking dog.
When a witch goes before the king to ask for the road in front of her house to be repaired, she is told by the king’s chief advisor that the king could build castles in the air if he wanted to, rather than talk to her. This gives the witch a clever idea and pretty soon the king is looking down on his kingdom from his castle in the clouds
Arin and her Mom go to the cemetery to tell Arin’s Dad that it’s okay, that they love him and don’t blame him for what happened in the church the night they surprised two burglars. A softly told tale of a ghostly encounter in a graveyard with a nice twist at the end.
When Rooster ducks into the barn to get out of the afternoon rain storm he is surprised to have his sneeze answered by a polite “God bless you, young man.” When he realizes it is Miz Mephitis, the skunk, he backs away just a far as he can. But his fear is replaced by curiosity when a right friendly discussion ensues and Rooster learns there is a lot more to skunks than he had imagined.
A very literary and delightful modern translation/adaptation of one of Charles Perrault’s most famous fairy tails wherein the youngest son inherits nothing of value except the family cat. But the cat, who is very fond or his young master, proves to be well more that just a cat. Bebooted and behatted, the clever feline finds his master both a kingdom and a wife. For all who love happily ever afters – and cats.
A dragon, fearing that he doesn’t exist, shares his concern with his friends the griffin, the unicorn and the sphinx. They can offer little to ease his worries but in the end, like Rousseau, he decides, someone imagines, therefore, I am.
A “what if” story about one of Cinderella’s coachmen who stays a man rather than regaining his mouse form at the stroke of midnight. Dazed and confused, he finds himself at the gates of a castle and discovers that, upon being given lowly work in the King’s stables, he has a knack as a horse whisperer.
The trouble with Trouble was he talked too much, even old skunk told him so. But when Trouble tried to tell everyone old skunk spoke to him, no one ever believed him again.
When death comes for Old Hark, the old man tells him to come again in the spring so he can feed his birds for one more winter. After some argument, Death offers to give him one more winter if he can answer three questions.
A story from Ms Banks' delightful anthology “The Magic Hare” in which the magic hare is snared by an orphan for dinner. The hare continues to suggest ingredients that would make him taste better but the final one is through the dark forest where the orphan has never gone. The hare leads the way, the orphan overcomes her fear and both live happily, but separately, ever after.
When Conal builds his castle on a hilltop he is not aware that he is intruding in the domain of the powerful fairy, Duine Sidhe. Cursed by the fairy, Conal and his family find no happiness until Conal’s son is befriended by a weaver who weaves a magic tapestry that can lift the curse.
After John Robert found a dragon’s egg down by the swamp, he and his Grandpa Riley kept it a secret from Aunt Bess whose life was too hard to care about such things. That is until it hatched, grew to 14 feet in two months and drank all the coal oil in the barn. Well, something had to be done. Lucky for John Robert and Grandpa Riley it was the flyin’ kind…
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